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Free and conjugated phenolic compounds profile and antioxidant activities of honeybee products of polish origin

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Abstract

In this study, the profile of free and conjugated phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity of bee bread, bee pollen, honey and beeswax samples from the same beehive was analyzed. The contents of free phenolic compounds and those released from the esters and glycosides bounds were analyzed by HPLC–TOF–MS/MS method. In the obtained extracts, the total of phenolic (TP) and flavonoid (TF) contents was measured using spectrophotometric methods, while antioxidant activity was determined by DPPH and ABTS in vitro assays. Therefore, in the tested honeybee products 23 phenolic compounds were identified, constituting of 14 phenolic acids and nine flavonoids. Among the phenolic acids, ferulic (bee bread), protocatechuic (bee pollen) and m-coumaric acids (honey and beeswax) were predominant. In case of flavonoids, the major compounds were vitexin in bee bread, orientin in bee pollen, and apigenin in honey. The highest TP and TF contents were detected in the bee pollen, and was 4.11 mg GAE/g and 0.41 mg Q/g, respectively. Moreover, these compounds were mostly present in bound form. Honeybee product extracts had high scavenging ability against radicals, and their antioxidant activity differed significantly across samples (p < 0.05). Overall, this study demonstrates that selected honeybee products are an abundant source of the bioactive compounds with the characteristic profile of phenolic compound as well as antioxidant activity.

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Acknowledgements

The publication was written as a result of the author's internship (TS) in The Pennsylvania State University, co-financed by the European Union under the European Social Fund (Operational Program Knowledge Education Development), carried out in the project Development Program at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (POWR.03.05. 00-00-Z310/17).

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This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Nutrition, Faculty of Food Sciences, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, 45f Słoneczna Street, 10-718, Olsztyn, Poland

    Tomasz Sawicki & Monika Ruszkowska

  2. California State University, Long Beach, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, 1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA, 90840-9507, USA

    Jessica Shin

  3. Department of Chemistry and Biodynamics of Food, Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research of Polish Academy of Sciences, 10 Tuwima Street, 10-748, Olsztyn, Poland

    Małgorzata Starowicz

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  1. Tomasz Sawicki
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Correspondence to Tomasz Sawicki.

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Sawicki, T., Ruszkowska, M., Shin, J. et al. Free and conjugated phenolic compounds profile and antioxidant activities of honeybee products of polish origin. Eur Food Res Technol 248, 2263–2273 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-022-04041-8

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